Southern Horrors (1892) is a pamphlet by Ida B. Wells. Published
several months after a white mob destroyed the office of her prominent
Memphis newspaper, the Free Speech, Southern Horrors is an
impassioned work of investigative journalism and political criticism
from a leading activist of the nineteenth century. "Nobody in this
section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that Negro men
rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful, they will
overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a
conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral
reputation of their women." After publishing these words in a May 1892
edition of the Memphis Free Speech, Ida B. Wells left for a brief
vacation in New York--no doubt inspired by the numerous threats made
against her life at the time. In her absence, a mob of white men
destroyed the newspaper's office, leaving no trace of her extensive
research on the last half century of violence perpetrated against
African Americans in the name of white supremacy. Undeterred, Wells
published Southern Horrors just months later, combining personal
reflections on the incident with daring investigative reporting on the
widespread practice of lynching in the American South. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this
edition of Ida B. Wells' Southern Horrors is a classic of African
American literature reimagined for modern readers.
